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Articles
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| Private parties are considering taking over the lease |
VOICE writes, "
BY BEN WEINSTEIN
Mayor Adrian Fenty announced last week that private parties are considering taking over the lease for 225 Virginia Ave. SE, a large warehouse the city rented last year for its now-abandoned plan to move Metropolitan Police Department headquarters.
He also said 1st District police headquarters will stay in Southwest, possibly moving into an elementary school building.
Fenty said the not-yet-finalized deal would save the city $19.1 million a year on a lease signed during Mayor Anthony Williams' tenure. He did not say who might takeover the 20-year lease for the old newspaper printing facility, but the Washington Business Journal reported last month that National Public Radio is considering the site."
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"This is great news for taxpayers of the District of Columbia as well as the public safety community," Fenty said in a release.
The site's future has been in limbo since community opposition pushed city officials to back off the plan to relocate police headquarters and six department divisions, including Southwest's 1st District headquarters. Near Southeast residents said dropping more than 1,000 employees into the rapidly developing neighborhood would worsen traffic and parking problems, as well as create a potential new target for a terrorist attack.
In September, the Office of Property Management recommended dropping the move, saying the estimated $100 million renovations was too expensive. The $6.5-million-per-year lease requires the city to pay around $100 million for major renovations and includes an option to buy the property, according to city officials.
Council member Phil Mendelson, chair of the committee on public safety, criticized parts of Fenty’s plan. He said without the Virginia Avenue building, the city will be forced to delay building its new forensics facility, which will go in Southwest.
"I am skeptical that this ground will be broken on time. I will not be satisfied until the lab is completed. Until then we hamper our ability to effectively and efficiently fight crime in the District of Columbia," Mendelson said in a statement.
The city will build the new forensics facility at 4th and School streets, the current 1st District headquarters. Under the old plan, 1st District headquarters would have moved to Virginia Avenue to facilitate lab construction, but Fenty said the station could move to Bowen Elementary School.
Bowen is on the list for upcoming school closures, but Mendelson said it won't be ready in time to accommodate the city's proposed 2011 move-in date for the forensics building.
"We are still cutting a check for over $540,000 each month for an empty building. We still do not have a suitable location for a number of other public safety agencies. We continue to be told that the completion of the lab is on schedule -- I am unconvinced," Mendelson said in the statement.
Earlier this year, Mendelson criticized the city for not informing the public about the Virginia Avenue project, saying he shared some blame because he knew about the project early on. Though he supported parts of the plan, he called it a "victim of transition in government" that was poorly received because of the lack of notice.
Fenty said the lab complex is on schedule to start construction early. It will house the police department’s crime lab, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the D.C. Public Health Lab.
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Posted on Dec 07, 2007 08:25am.
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